Polarisation between political parties intensified as public outrage continued to pour out against the attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai. The PPP targeted Imran Khan for suggesting the government should engage in talks with Taliban, the killers of young girls seeking education.
The Khan camp insisted that force alone had never succeeded in eliminating radical elements anywhere in the world and cited the example of Irish Republican Army whose militant wing was disbanded only after negotiations between the two protagonists reached a logical conclusion.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) information secretary Shafqat Mehmood said: "We should first hold talks with them (Taliban). A military operation is the last option. I am sure we can persuade through negotiation, as we did in South Waziristan". Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, during a press conference, accused Imran khan of refusing to visit an unconscious Malala with the Prime Minister.
Shafqat Mehmood explained that Imran Khan had already visited Malala Yousufzai in hospital and had offered to bear the full cost of her treatment. In addition, he said, Imran Khan had categorically and unambiguously condemned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). "Imran himself condemned by naming the TTP the very next day of the attack after enquiring about the health of Malala in Peshawar. I myself condemned the TTP by name...what else should we do. This is a propaganda campaign against PTI," he maintained.
The attack on Malala and the accompanying public outcry, analysts maintained, might well be regarded by the establishment as the most propitious time to launch an offensive against militants in the North Waziristan Agency, a long standing US demand. The possibility of such an operation has led to wide divisions between political parties and made for some rather strange bedfellows: for example, PTI holds views similar to hard-liner Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), who are openly opposing an operation against Taliban.
Maulana Ataur Rehman, the younger brother of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, was cautious while speaking in the National Assembly against the attack on Malala. "We condemn this outrage, but we will have to go to the root causes of why such events happen." He proceeded to blame drone strikes and the US engagement in Afghanistan as the root causes of such events.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman went a step further and questioned why the focus was on the attack on Malala, instead of being targeted against the government's wrong policies. JUI-F's spokesperson Maulana Amjad Khan refused to comment, saying that his party chief's statement was "enough". "The JUI-F chief has given a very categorical statement and that is enough," he said before switching off his cell phone, insisting he was "busy" in a conference.
JI's secretary-general Liaqat Baloch said that the party was not in favour of any military operation anywhere in the country, including North Waziristan. He urged the government, media, both national and international, not to exploit the attack on Malala for launching another military assault. "The attack on Malala along with her school fellows is highly condemnable, but the way it is being projected will create doubts in people's minds," he added.
A PML-N leader and political commentator, Ayaz Amir, called it the culmination of years of "playing with fire". "We should have had sense enough to understand it would come to haunt us and become our worst nightmare." The plight of an exceptional young girl, who won international recognition for campaigning for the right to education, has sickened millions of Pakistanis.
Activists say the shooting should serve as a wake-up call to those who advocate appeasement or peace with Taliban, but analysts say that would require a seismic shift in a country that has sponsored radical Islam for decades. PML-N's spokesperson Senator Mushahidullah Khan said that there was no justification for an attack on young Malala. However, his stance on military operation in North Waziristan was unclear.
He said that the incident should not be linked with any proposed military offensive in North Waziristan. "Reports about (military) operation against militants were already in rife before this incident. Let us see what the government is going to do," he said.
After a corps commanders' meeting in Rawalpindi on Thursday, the army said it was ready to render any sacrifice in the fight against terrorism and that operational preparedness was being evaluated to take stock of upcoming challenges. But analysts doubted that the army would be willing to take on TTP in its stronghold in North Waziristan. Political analyst Hasan Askari noted that the country was polarised.
"For all the condemnation of the shooting from clerics and right-wing groups, they do not denounce Taliban," Askari said, adding that instead they reserved their anger for the US drone strikes on Pakistani soil and questioned why the government did not protect her. He said that all groups on the political right and Islamist groups "are either sympathetic towards militant groups or actively support them".
"They are supported by two generations of young men schooled at seminaries who are united in their hatred of America, their desire for jihad and intolerance towards women," he added. Askari said he did not think that the tragic Malala incident would be used as a pretext for an offensive in North Waziristan, but said even that would not crush Taliban.
"All these groups in North Waziristan will disappear - crossing (over) to Afghanistan or moving to other tribal areas, so they will not be able to catch them. They [army] can fight one group, but not so many groups," he said. The major lesson learned from the tragic incident is that public opinion did emerge as all protagonists - Taliban, political parties and even the establishment - responded: Taliban by repeatedly justifying their action, political parties by condemning and offering assistance to Malala's family, and the establishment by providing her full medical support.